It frequently occurs that two or more applications installed on a computing device provide the same or similar services. For example, a user may install two or more phone calling applications, multiple email applications, or any of a variety of applications that provide overlapping capabilities.
When the user is logged into multiple applications under the same user account, it may also occur that the applications ring, alert, or otherwise surface duplicate indications of an incoming communication. From the perspective of the user experience, the duplicate indications may be annoying to the user, such as when two different email applications each surface their own indication that the same email was received.
From a more technical perspective, the duplicate indications may waste processing resources and valuable screen space. Race conditions may exist whereby multiple applications are racing to access capabilities of the user interface. For instance, two phone calling applications may compete to issue an audible ring or compete to surface a visible indication of the incoming call on a display. The competing applications may create a jarring user experience and may also waste the underlying resources of their shared environment.